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Good for a smaller family.

We bought this microwave as a replacement, as ours unfortunately broke in a house move! We've had it for about a month now.

Generally, the microwave is good. It does it's job and is easy to use. I like the digital display - our previous microwave used a more "traditional" timer, so could be a little more difficult to get timings perfect, but it also broke, so I much prefer having a digital display without a flimsy turn switch. I also like that the buttons are a reasonable size, so that they can be seen clearly (especially by Mum when she stays with us!). However, I don't really think that the cooking presets are much use, as I think it is quicker to just manually set the timer! The microwave itself is quite small, which for us has it's pros and cons. For space on the work tops, the small size is great as we have a bit more room to move in our smallish kitchen. However, the small size inside does mean that you can struggle to fit a large dinner plate in. There's only the two of us so we don't really find this too much of an issue though - fine for a small family.

The general look of the microwave is quite good actually. It's nothing overly fancy, but functional and not messy, so fine by us! They layout of the buttons does help make it easy to use.

We paid £52 for the microwave on Amazon. I think that perhaps this was a little pricey, but, it does the job and is easy to use, so we are happy with the product overall. Perhaps I would expect it to be a little cheaper, just because of the small size.

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I was pretty shocked when I was in the middle of microwaving a ready meal and I saw flames flashing from it (and no I hadn't put foil in there!) and that was the demise of our microwave which we have had for quite a while. After going all over the place looking for a decent priced microwave we eventually found this one in Argos priced at £64.99.

Firstly - it comes in a huge box! I know mircowaves are big but I felt the packaging on this one was absolutely ridiculous! The box has a picture of the microwave on it and "Sharp" in their font. It is also pretty heavy! Once you get the box open you are greeted with lots of polysteryne and plastic. You also receive an instruction booklet. Once through all the "rubbish" you get inside you do eventually find this very compact microwave.

My microwave is the exact same model as the one above but mine is silver. You can also get it in white and black (as pictured). It is a really nice microwave to look at. It looks stylish and fits into our modern kitchen perfectly. The microwave is 800w and has a 20L capacity. It also boasts the following features: ten power levels, various cooking menus mean 8 auto-cook, 3 express cook and 3 express defrost functions. It has a touch control panel.

The mircowave has a little button you press to open the door and the interior of the microwave lights up when this door is open. When it has finished cooking your food, it also makes a loud "ding" noise which repeats four or five times. It then repeats this after a few minutes if you have not removed your food which is great if you haven't heard it the first time or you have just forgotten! It also has a solid glass microwaveable plate.

Sadly, there are a good few things I am not keen on with this microwave and I always feel it doesn't live up to the standard our old microwave set. Firstly to set the required time for your meal or whatever it is you are cooking in the microwave there are only three options - 10 minutes, 1 minute and 10 seconds. There is no number pad. So if you wanted to cook something for 2 minutes and 25 seconds. It is is either 20 seconds or 30 seconds. It is a little frustrating.

Next, we have had this mircowave 5 months and on the touchpad the plastic is started to rub and crinkle up. At first I thought we had missed a protective film but it isn't; thus making the microwave look tatty despite it being only 5 months old and not having had much use.

Also the microwave is 800w. My previous microwave was also an 800w and it seemed to make food much hotter. This microwave just doesn't seem as pwerful and I reall am unsure why. I have got it on the highest power setting you can have it on and it doesn't make any difference at all.

The microwaveable plate always comes off its wheels, regardless of what you have in the microwave which is very annoying. Sometimes it does this mid cooking so you have to stop the microwave and place it back on.

It doesn't have a clock! This annoyed me no end as on the box it gives the impression that it does actually have a clock. It even has a page in the instruction manual on how to set the clock and then in small print at the bottom says "This model does not have a clock" - what is the point in putting it in the instruction manual?! I find it odd when I look at the LCD panel and it is dark with no clock.

Overall, I am really disappointed with this microwave. It just doesn't live up to the expectations I had of it. I wish I had taken it back to exchange it now but it is too late. I would really avoid this model and look for something else.

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Sharp Solo microwave

When my old microwave from Sainsbury`s decided to throw in the towel, I was looking for a microwave that perhaps would last me a little bit longer, would offer some more features, be of overall better quality and hopefully look a bit more modern too. So when I stumbled across this Sharp Solo Microwave on the internet, I decided to give it a try, and so far, I haven`t regreted doing so!

In the first weeks of using this microwave, I was very pleased to discover how big it is and therefore how much food you can prepare in it, but also how high its capacity is, with that being able to cook, defrost or heat your food, milk, bread and so on very fast and efficient. The inside of this microwave has a rotating turntable, which I have come to enjoy a lot, as it makes sure that your food is heated properly and evenly. This is a 800 watt output microwave, meaning that your foods are reheated, defrosted and cooked very fast if you should so choose. All though I have owned this microwave for some months now, I still haven`t had any difficulties with it, which I am taking as a good sign of its reability and quality. As for the design, this is a modern looking, stylish and honestly very cool microwave in black, spicing up the look on your kitchen counter, for sure!

I paid 54.99 for this Sharp Solo Microwave, and I don`t think that`s too much given its good quality. As my old microwave was working slow, didn`t always work at all, and when it worked, made a heck of a lot of noise, I am very glad to report that this runs perfectly, efficiently and quietly, halelujah!

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A reliable and stylish microwave oven.

When our old microwave oven packed in, this is the model we chose to replace it.

I was first drawn by the look of this microwave. It is very stylish, in black and has touch controls, so easy to use and clean. It also fits nicely into the corner of my worktop, but still has a fairly large interior. I use my microwave a lot, not just for reheating food, but I cook whole meals in it, so I need it to be able to take a wide variety of containers. It's overall size is: H26.2, W45.2, D37cm and it weighs 12kg.

The interior is white and has a 24.5cm diameter rotating turntable. I do find the turntable comes off the wheels quite easily when you remove plates etc from the oven, though it does not really bother me that much.

It has 8 power settings including a speed defrost, which I find really useful, plus a low setting to keep food warm if it is ready before you want to serve it. When defrosting it automatically stops half-way through to allow you to turn or stir food to make sure it thaws evenly. I find that very useful. One thing I do use a lot on it is the kitchen timer, which you can use even when not miucrowaving something. You also have settings for specific foodstuff, such as baked potatoes, so all you need to do is touch which one you need and away you go! A large jacket potato takes in the region of 10 minutes to cook.

Setting the cooking time is easy, with options of setting 10 minutes at a time, single minutes at a time or setting by seconds, so you can get very accurate timings for whatever you are cooking.

The microwave has 800 watts output, so cooks quite fast. If I need to reheat a plate of ready-cooked food it takes about 3-4 minutes, which I think is quite good.

The door is easy to open and close and the interior very easy to clean. If you forget to take your food out of it the oven 'dings' every couple of minutes to remind you. I found the instruction booklet quite easy to understand, though really, this microwave is so easy to use even a child could work it out quite quickly. My son has special needs and he has no problem working out how to use it!

Overall, I am really pleased with this microwave and would happily buy another if this ever let me down. So far though, it has worked beautifully. We have had this model for about 6 months and it gets used every single day, so I am very pleased with it!